The masked hooligans from Creepsylvania Ghoul made a stop on their Weapons of Mosh Destruction tour at Velvet Jones in Santa Barbara, California. A small, but intimate setting where chances are, the venue had no idea what it was in for. Ghoul is still touring in support of their newest album, Dungeon Bastards. If you’ve never experienced Ghoul live, you are in for a real gross treat.

Two politicians came out on stage and started talking to the audience before unveiling the Necronomicon book. The members of Ghoul made their way to the stage with axes and hacked away at the politicians. The result? the main attraction at a Ghoul concert.

Ghoul started the show with Ghoulunatics as the politicians started spraying blood (red dye) at the audience. The audience went wild as they willingly let themselves get sprayed as part of the fun at a Ghoul concert. Thrash metal plus blood being sprayed everywhere is the perfect combo. Ghoul continued the madness with Ghetto Blasters/Bringer of War and kept the energy going as the fans kept the mosh pits alive. Ghoul would bring out more of their ridiculous characters that would always end up with more blood being sprayed at the audience. Ghoul played more tunes from their newest album which included Shred the Dead, Dungeon Bastards, and Word Is Law. Other classics included Splatterthrash, Rot Gut, and Spill Your Guts where bassist Cremator ripped the head off a baby doll and squirted blood from the lifeless body onto the audience.

In between songs, Ghoul would tell short stories as if they were in a play that would always leave the audience laughing and would lead to the next song. One of the more fun songs played was Abominox and of course Ghoul brought out the gross mutant monster known to the universe as Abominox as it almost successfully devoured the band members. Guitarmageddon was the perfect finish to the show and Ghoul left the stage for the audience to fend for themselves. After a few minutes, the band made their way back to the stage and let the fans know that this is the part of the show where they go home. The fans refused to do so and to reward their dedication, Ghoul played a couple of encores. The first encore was Metallicus Ex Mortis.

The grand finale of the night was Gutbucket Blues and it featured an ape-like creature with dangling testicles throwing chunks of blood and flesh from a bucket labeled as “Whale Cum” at the audience and eventually led to the whole bucket being flung at the audience. Ghoul finished the show once again and left. What was left of the venue? Mass blood and chunks everywhere and everyone up front looking like they were just put through a meat grinder. If you’ve never seen the live macabre that is Ghoul, they are for sure not to be missed next time they grind their way to your city.